242 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



the merlin ; to a young squire, the hobby ; 

 while a yeoman carried a goshawk ; a priest, a 

 sparrowhawk ; and a knave, or servant, a kestrel." 



The sport was, however, expensive, for it took 

 much time and devotion to train the birds. 

 Falconry in those times, as the flying machine 

 is in ours, was in the air, and just as one now 

 hears our undergraduates discussing carburetters, 

 air-locks, sparking-plugs, and various vintages of 

 petrol, so in the times of Queen Elizabeth the 

 keen young men of Shakespeare's Plays discussed 

 the various kinds of hawks and their habits. 



The towering of a falcon is referred to in 

 " Macbeth " (II. iv. 12) in a sense that has since 

 become unusual : 



" On Tuesday last, 



A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place 

 Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kilTd." 



At the present day the expression " towering" 

 is restricted to a bird that has been hit but which 

 flies on for a space as though unhurt, and then 

 suddenly and rapidly rises almost vertically before 

 dropping dead. The probable explanation is that 

 hemorrhage has filled the lungs or bronchial 

 tubes with blood, and the upward rise is a 



